Our Town

Repetition is used as a plot device to represent the repetitive nature of everyday life and the cyclical nature of the human species. It is also used to drive home the idea that while our daily lives may be repetitive, each moment is precious and worth savoring. Throughout the play, several actors appear as flat characters who serve to illustrate this repetition. Howie Newsome delivers the milk each day and even comments on how old Bessie “keeps scolding [him] the hull trip” (11) when one family decides to stop taking their daily quart. The newspaper boy, either Joe or Si Crowell, delivers the papers, the doctor makes his rounds, and Constable Warren often walks along Main Street checking out one thing or another. These characters convey a sense of reliability, familiarity, and simplicity. The central characters’ lives are repetitive: the children attend school, the women tend to the house, and the men go off to work.

The repetition occurs not only on the scale of daily life but also over the years that the play takes place in and beyond. From the very first scene, the Stage Manager emphasizes that life is cyclical and repeats: “The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go, doesn’t it?” (4).